Autumn — the time of the Festival of the Dead, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and prayers to ancestors easiest made. Pumpkin cakes are left in the Ancestors’ Niche in every house, and children tie black and orange ribbons to the doors and put candles in the windows of their houses so their dead ancestors can easily find their way home.

It is a quiet time, after the harvest and before the first snows of winter arrive. It can be a lonely time.